Scope of Broadkill Beach sand project comes into view

Broadkill Beach civic leader Jim Bailey knew his Delaware Bay community was getting a much wider beach and dune but now that crews have started pumping sand, even he has been surprised at the scope of the project.

When bulldozers are working on the low side, closest to Delaware Bay, they are obscured by the mountain of sand. And it's not just tall – about 16 feet – it's also wide.

"It's amazing," Bailey said. "The size of the dune is something you just couldn't picture."

The Army Corps of Engineers project combines two initiatives: deepening the lowest reach of the Delaware River main shipping channel from 40 to 45 feet and using the dredged sand to restore the badly eroded and storm-damaged shoreline at Broadkill.

Total cost: $63 million. Of that, about $30 million is being spent to pump the 1.9 million cubic yards of dredged channel sand onto the beach at Broadkill to create what some have described as "a megabeach."

Anthony P. Pratt, the state shoreline and waterway manager, said the size and scope of the project hasn't been seen before in Delaware. State and federal officials have teamed up to renourish beaches from Lewes south to Fenwick Island.

Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons stopped by Friday morning to see the project and Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District Commander Lt. Col. Michael A. Bliss, who was visiting Broadkill for the first time, said: "It's a really special community. You can tell."

Broadkill is the largest of the unincorporated Delaware Bay communities and Bailey and other local residents have been working for two decades to get help for the two-miles of beach.

The area is especially vulnerable in storms because large ocean waves build and come into Delaware Bay and pound the shoreline. Pratt said that Lewes may be closer to the open ocean but it is better protected by Cape Henlopen and the adjacent stone breakwaters that form The Harbor of Refuge.

Broadkill, on the other hand, is more exposed and storms and normal erosion have taken a toll.

By some estimates, the new beach will be a throwback to the shoreline that Broadkill residents would have seen 60 years ago. It will be higher and wider, Pratt said. The dune will cover a swath of beach about 100 feet wide and the level sand where people can spread beach blankets and set up umbrellas will be another 150 feet.

The project is possible because federal officials needed a place to put the sand they removed from the shipping channel.

"Once upon a time, we called them spoils," Pratt said. "This is an opportunity" to use what might have been dumped offshore or placed elsewhere to rebuild a storm-damaged beach.

The project meets two goals for Delaware officials: It provides a wide beach with added storm protection at Broadkill, and it allows for deeper-draft ships to reach the Delaware River port network, including the Port of Wilmington, said Carper, D-Del.

And it uses the sand in a positive way.

"Sometimes, we spend money just to get rid of the stuff," he said.

Meanwhile, Carper said, state and local officials need to keep the eye on the bigger issue of sea level rise.

"We're really good ... at addressing symptoms of problems," Carper said. "But sea level is rising ... We are in this together."

Coons, D-Del, said that besides the new beach and added shoreline protection, the project will also allow area ports – including the Port of Wilmington – to remain competitive.

"There is so much more that we will be able to do" once the channel deepening is complete, Coons said.

Reach Molly Murray at (302) 463-3334 or mmurray@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @MollyMurraytnj.

Broadkill by the numbers

Dune height: 16 feet.

Beach width: 150 feet, wider in some areas

Pre-project beach width at end of Del. 16 at high tide: 27-feet

Completed beach height: 8-feet

Amount of sand: 1.9 million cubic yards -- enough to fill a football field with sand that would rise 89-stories.

Total cost: $69.3 million for the lower reach of Delaware River Channel deepening from 40 to 45 million and beach restoration combined. The estimated cost of the beach work along is $30 million.

Life of the project: Army Corps of Engineers plans are to maintain the deeper channel and the beach for the next 50 years.